ICC MEDIA RELEASE – 13/11/09

Shakib, Price, Haurtiz and Saeed achieve career-best rankings while Harbhajan and Afridi return to the top 10

Ponting rises to fourth but Yuvraj drops to eighth and Gambhir slips to 19th, Watson vaults into second place in all-rounders’ listing

Spinners dominate the latest Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers with New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori regaining the top spot and no less than four bowlers achieving career-best rankings.

Vettori, who slipped to second behind Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekara after the home series against India in March this year, has reclaimed the number-one spot after a good series against Pakistan in which he not only inspired the Black Caps to a 2-1 series win but also picked up five wickets in the process.

Vettori’s efforts have helped him leapfrog his team-mate Kyle Mills who has slipped four places to fifth in the latest rankings which were released on Thursday.

The spin quartet of Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, Zimbabwe’s Ray Price, Nathan Hauritz of Australia and Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal have achieved the best rankings of their careers to date following good performances in their respective series.

Shakib has moved up two places to second position after a good series against Zimbabwe, Price has jumped three places to third after a productive series against South Africa, Hauritz has vaulted seven places to 17th spot after a successful series against India while Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal has rocketed 17 places to 20th spot after the series against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi.

Harbhajan Singh and Shahid Afridi have also returned to the top 10 after good performances against Australia and New Zealand. Harbhajan has jumped 11 places to join Afridi in eighth spot after picking up eight wickets against Australia while Afridi has improved by three places after his five wickets against the Black Caps.

Amongst the fast bowlers, New Zealand’s Jacob Oram has climbed eight places to 11th after his four wickets against Pakistan, Australia’s Doug Bollinger has rocketed 52 places to 69th position after his nine wickets against India but New Zealand’s Shane Bond, Australia duo of Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee, and India pair of Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma have failed to defend their positions.

Bond has slipped two places to seventh spot, Johnson shares 13th spot with South Africa’s Johan Botha after dropping two places, Lee and Kumar have dropped six places each to 22nd and 24th respectively while Sharma has dropped nine places to 35th position.

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, Australia captain Ricky Ponting has continued his upward movement and after a productive series in India in which he scored 267 runs, he has risen to fourth after improving his ranking by two places. Ponting had started the series in eighth position.

Mike Hussey, who was the most successful batsman in India with 313 runs, has strengthened his second position. Along with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who contributed 285 runs, he is now the only other batsman with more than 800 ratings points.

Also moving up the order is New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum who has broken into the top 20 for the first time in his career. McCullum, who scored 228 runs in the series, has jumped 16 places to a career-best 16th spot.

Other batsmen to move in the right direction are South Africa’s JP Duminy in 22nd spot (up by 11 places), Australia’s Shane Watson in 26th position (up by 10 places), Australia’s Cameron White in 42nd spot (up by 25 places) and Zimbabwe’s Brendon Taylor in 47th place (up by 13 places).

India vice-captain Yuvraj Singh leads the list of batsmen who have failed to defend their rankings.

Yuvraj, who started the series in second place, has dropped five places to eighth position, while Gautam Gambhir has dropped four places to share the 19th spot with Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya.

Others to lose ground are Shoaib Malik in 22nd spot (down by six places), Ross Taylor in 27th position (down by four places), Younus Khan in 30th place (down by five places) and Mohammad Ashraful in 57th position (down by seven places).

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders, Watson has achieved a -career-best second ranking after his player-of-the-series performance against India in which he scored 256 runs and took 10 wickets. Besides his 26th place in the batting table, the Queenslander sits in 32nd position in the bowling chart.